06-19-05, LearnTexasHoldem:

Making Other Players Mad

Question: I have a question about a hand that had upset my opponent. There was no raise before the flop and I was in the small blind so I called a 8d-4d. The flop was Ks-10d-6-d. He raised a small amount and I called it. The other players folded. Turn was a 7c. He put me all-in (which was about $20 and I thought that I had enough outs to call him. So I showed him my hand and he was in disbelief. He showed his pair of 10's and before he said anything else the river was a 9h. I won the pot with the straight and the guy was extremely rattled. He said something to me like "How can you call me with an 8 high flush draw. I told him I didnt even need the flush do beat him which aggravated him even more. I admit it was a gamble and I got lucky with the river but was it an idiotic call to make?

I also got into with this opponent later when he raised me $10 and I came over the top and raised him $40 with an Ace high. When he folded I showed it to him and he told me I didnt have to do that. I was doing this to show him I wasn't afraid to bluff and hope I would do it again to him when I did have a hand. I wondered about this later if it is bad poker ettiquette to show a hand when you are bluffing?

Ben

Top 3 Beginner Rooms

Answer: Players get pissed off all the time and there is no reason behind any of it. The best advice I can give you is to not listen to other player's complaining or "advice." Many times the people who are doing the berating are total hypocrites, they make the exact same play or 10x worse, yet when they do it consider it a good play. This happens at all stakes too. Let me give you a quick example.

I was playing $40/80 on Friday and at the table there was this middle age woman who was playing very loosely, raising every other hand, calling everyone else's raises, and going to the river every time (literally). Obviously for this type of player to have any chips left, she had to lay some bad beats down on people. She had snapped me off a couple times, which is fine, but what I found hilarious is when I beat her with a draw she started whining saying how lucky I was! She raised, another person reraised and another cold-called. I was in the big blind with 43s.

I liked that hand in that spot because most likely everyone else had large cards and my hand was very well disguised -- so I called. The flop gave me the openended straight draw, the turn gave me the flush draw. I hit the nut straight on the river and won a big pot, only for her to complain, "that was sooo ugly!" I just chuckled to myself remember how many times she was calling multiple bets attempting to hit 3 outers all day. See people just bitch and complain. They couldn't possibly think they are losing because of something they did, it must be you playing so badly they can't beat you (which of course is ridiculous).

So the first point is to not listen to them blab. Don't expect people to lose large sums of money and be happy with it. As for your 84 hand, you have both the flush draw and the gutshot straight, either which would be a winner if you hit. I'm not sure how much money is in the pot, but most likely it wasn't a bad play at all. Now as for the Ace high pot where you reraised and won, I don't mind the play. You are kind of sticking it to him, but oh well, he probably deserved it.

I would say it was bad poker etiquette if you were to do that repeatedly to someone who was clearly not as good as the rest of the table. If you berate a bad player, then I would have an issue with it. If you just show a bluff now and then to someone who was being a dick before, good for you! I would probably only show that one bluff though. One bluff can leave some doubt in your opponent's minds, but if you who multiple ones, they will start to be able to pick up on when you are executing them.

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